Another Way To Get That Extra Income

Mortgage helper. That extra bit of the house that you could rent out and allow you to have someone else pay a sizable chunk of your mortgage for you. One day you may choose to get rid of the tenants. The you could use it yourself, or have your inlaws stay there once in a while. You could also pursue that old hobby of yours you’ve never had the space for. But right now, especially if you’re trying to make the most of your money, that mortgage helper is a big boost in the long term financially. It will not only make those payments to the bank more manageable but it will help you get into a more expensive (nicer) house if you choose to. And should you choose to go into that more expensive and probably nicer house you’ll likely reap greater financial benefits down the road. It’s a well established pattern that property values have a way of going up in the long term, while being up or down in the short term.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the City of Nanaimo is encouraging more density and one result of that is they are allowing secondary suites in homes. This is providing certain safety guidelines are followed of course. But it’s not limited to just have a suite in the basement. There are these detached suites (often referred to as ‘carriage houses’) that the city is permitting these days as well. In short, if your house is a corner lot, over 1,000 square metres or has a lane that accesses to the back of the property, then you can built a carriage house suite. Any one of these three criteria is enough.

Click below to open the .pdf file that is issued by the city on this matter.

About Me

I started my life growing up quite near Nanaimo in the town of Port Alberni (just over an hour away) and have always had some sort of relationship with the town, even if it was mostly as a place to go shopping during those early years. I eventually went to college here before going globe trotting/studying for seven years before deciding that Nanaimo was really as good as it gets.